Startup Street: This Plug-And-Play Device Helps Small Retail Stores Go Online
Here’s what went on Startup Street this week.
This week on Startup Street, a new venture that’s enabling local mom-and-pop stores to go online. The government is searching for a consultant to help take its flagship Startup India programme to the next level. And a new report shows how big tech companies in the U.S. are gobbling up AI startups. Here’s what went on:
Taking Mom-And-Pop Outlets Online
A Mumbai-based early-stage startup has developed a device that can help local mom-and-pop stores to start accepting online orders and payments instantly.
near.store offers a white, palm-sized device that the owner of a store has to simply plug into the existing billing system. “Once connected, the artificial intelligence on the device uploads all the products that the shop sells onto a dedicated online store created for the shop,” Ashish Kumar, co-founder of near.store told BloombergQuint. “In doing this, the retailer does not require any additional software installation, electricity or store wi-fi. Neither do they have to type anything or create a catalogue of the products that they sell.”
This is where the startup, still pilot-testing the device in Mumbai and Bangalore, is setting itself apart from hyperlocal store aggregators or e-commerce.
There are many firms that are using tech to streamline sourcing and inventory or are pure-play accounting or billing services, Kumar said. “We, on the other hand, are helping shops in creating a digital front-end presence for a shop. The name and brand of the shop remains unchanged.”
For a local shop owner who relies on customer relations, this creates an opportunity to provide the convenience of online shopping to his existing customers. Since the shop is now visible on local searches, it also gives them an opportunity to expand their customer base.Ashish Kumar, Co-founder, near.store
near.store will charge the shop owners a small processing fee per order made through their platform. The plug-in device is currently free. However, Kumar said they may look at charging new retailers for it at a later stage.
The startup also tie ups with a logistics partner. A shop owner can use near.store’s delivery partner for a fee.
The 14-member team of near.store started installing their boxes in February 2020. They have signed up over 100 shops in less than three months and plan to reach 500 within the next six months. A mobile phone app is also under development and is expected to launch next month.
The startup’s founding members also include Ramakrishnan A., a former Mindtree Ltd. employee, and ex-investment banker Diwakar Mitr. Former Coca Cola India marketing head Shripad Nadkarni is on board as a senior adviser.
near.store’s premise has also helped it raise $300,000 as seed funding from sauce.vc. The funds will be used to increase the startup’s sales and marketing efforts.
Kumar is confident that near.store could become a standout in India’s growing online retail industry that’s expected to be worth $10.5 billion by 2023. “We are not trying to reinvent the wheel, we are trying to bring an essentially offline relationship to an online medium while providing additional convenience—this gives us greater confidence about our product.”
Hiring Now: A Consultant For Startup India
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade is looking to rope in a consulting agency to support it in the implementation of initiatives for startups.
The department floated a notice inviting request for proposal from interested agencies. DPIIT “proposes to engage a consultancy organisation to provide support ... for a period of three years, extendable one year at a time for a total duration of five years, to assist and support the department in effective and on ground implementation of Startup India Action Plan”.
The consulting agency, it said, will also support the department in scaling up the Startup India initiative through interventions considered important for building a strong ecosystem for budding entrepreneurs.
The main objectives include handholding, supervising and monitoring the implementation of recommendations for next three years; examining the need of current ecosystem; and provide short, medium and long-term suggestions for implementation by various agencies in consultation with various stakeholders to scale up the initiative; and undertake the state startup ranking exercise every year by coordinating with states and other stakeholders.
Startup India is a flagship initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, launched in January 2016.
Big Tech In U.S. Eats Up Most Of The AI Startups
Big tech firms in the U.S. are gobbling up most of the promising artificial intelligence startups, an issue which now the country’s regulator is looking into, according to a Bloomberg report.
Take last year for instance. There were a record 231 acquisitions of AI startups, compared with 42 five years ago. Apple was the top acquirer, followed by Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Intel Corp. and Amazon.
This could have repercussions for reasons beyond just anti-trust issues. For artificial intelligence, it is crucial to have a broad, diverse community developing it because the technology could become susceptible to bias, according to researchers.
“If big tech companies buy them all up, they eliminate these future competitors, and have a chance of actually owning the winners,” said Sean Gourley, chief executive officer of machine-learning startup Primer AI, told Bloomberg News. “It's a real shame. We lost something. There may have been different approaches in this field, but now we only have what these larger companies decide.”
Read the full Bloomberg story on the big tech acquisitions here.